Alkami, the pure-play software-as-a-service platform for U.S. community and mid-size banks and credit unions, arrived at its fiscal second quarter with a simple question: after a decade-plus of growth financed by losses, when does the model start paying for itself? This quarter provided the clearest answer yet. Adjusted EBITDA rose 62% year over year, to $19.4 million, at a 14.9% margin - roughly 430 basis points of expansion - and the company turned operating cash flow positive for the first half ($17.2 million). The GAAP income statement still shows a loss - $8.9 million, narrowed from $13.6 million a year ago - but that gap is now almost entirely the cost of stock-based compensation and amortization rather than cash burn. Two of the three operating engines moved the right way: revenue rose 15.9% to $129.8 million and annual recurring revenue crossed a half-billion dollars, up 21% to $511.7 million.
The quarter's numbers were also management's narrative. Execution came in ahead of its own expectations - the CEO said growth and Adjusted EBITDA both beat the internal view - with 37 new digital-banking logos added over the trailing twelve months, including 15 full banks. Guidance for the fiscal third quarter ($132.7 million to $134.2 million of revenue, $23.5 million to $24.3 million of Adjusted EBITDA) and for the full year ($528.0 million to $531.0 million, $96.0 million to $98.0 million) was reaffirmed. The stock, trading around $20.2 after the report, sits roughly 4.4x trailing revenue and about 25x guided forward Adjusted EBITDA - a multiple that is demanding, but priced by the market as a high-growth SaaS name, not a maturing one. The thesis this quarter is not that Alkami finally broke even. It is that the cash-flow turn is now visible in the numbers, and the report is a bet on whether that turn compounds.